As a loose rule, sabot rounds work best in fully rifled bbls. Smoothbores work best with the various Brennekes and the older Forster Style slugs. The rifled chokes I've used work best with the latter styles.

My deer 870 has a rifled choke tube. My HD 870 is chokeless. The groups from the Deer 870 with a rifled tube are excellent, but less than 1" smaller at 100 yards. That's 4-5" ETE, OA. But, when a Skeet I tube is exchanged for the rifled one, groups grow a bit. Best guess, 6"@ 100 yds.

If you're committed to using sabot slugs, chances are you'll have to go to a full rifled bbl.

OTOH, it'd be cheaper to change ammo than bbls, so you may want to test some non sabots and see how they perform for you and your shotgun at typical ranges. Where I hunt, shots are almost always inside 50 yards, and the various non sabots work very well indeed.

One note, we all need to work on our accuracy. But before I'd make a major purchase on a new bbl, I'd exhaust other possibilities. These would include better sights, eliminating slop between the bbl and receiver on a repeating shotgun, and improving the trigger.These are crucial to accuracy, and will do more good or harm than a rifled whatever at eastern deer ranges.

There's plenty of old threads here for guidance on these improvements, if you don't see what you need in the Archives,ask away.

I'm using the Rhino rifled tube on my Benelli M1 Super 90 Tactical and it shoots great with Brennekes. It is drilled with muzzle brake holes, but I can't really tell whether they do much. A number of police agencies have tested this tube with excellent results. At 50 yards, I've had some overlapping holes, and the rest were within a couple inches.

About 2 or 3 years ago Shooting Times did a comprehensive review on slug guns and ammo. After shooting ever gun on the market and every brand of ammo their findings were rifled choke tubes shot sabots nearly as well as fully rifled barrels. Granted, the newer bolt-action, fixed barreled, dedicated slug guns were more acuated. But when it comes to a typical upland bird gun it don't really matter accuracy wise if you use a rifled barrel or rifled choke.

My own experience agrees with that. I bought a fully rifled barrel for my Mossberg 500 in '89 - the first year rifled barrels were widely available from a major manufacturer. Shot BRI sabots (the only brand at the time) and used a AimPoint dot sight, 3" 100yd groups were the norm. That Mossy served me well for 6 or 7 years. Now I use a Rhino ported extended rifled choke tube on a Benelli M1 Field (with a 24" bird barrel), a Aimtech saddle mount, and a 30mm Millet Redot sight. If anything the groups are a tad bit smaller.

Bottomline: if you're lookin' to save a buck I'd strongly recommend an extended rifled choke tube - the kind that sticks out a inch or so past the end of the barrel. If you decide shell out for a rifled barrel get the kind with the cantilevered scope mount and then put a red dot sight on it - makes for a real handy combo.

Kernel, that runs contrary to my experience, but it may just be the two individual rifled chokes I've used. IMO, it's worth the time and effort to bench with sabots and see how they do in a particular shotgun, regardless of rifling.

OTOH, good buddy has one of those NEF slug guns, bbl from a 10 ga blank,and topped with a 3X9 scope. Fully rifled, and he claims that the two best slugs he's tried are both the Remington Forster Style and the Copper Sabot.

This email link is to reach site administrators for assistance, if you cannot access TFL via other means. If you are a TFL member and can access TFL, please do not use this link; instead, use the forums (like Questions, Suggestions, and Tech Support) or PM an appropriate mod or admin.

If you are experiencing difficulties posting in the Buy/Sell/Trade subforums of TFL, please read the "sticky" announcement threads at the top of the applicable subforum. If you still feel you are qualified to post in those subforums, please contact "Shane Tuttle" (the mod for that portion of TFL) via Private Message for assistance.

This email contact address is not an "Ask the Firearms Expert" service. Such emails will be ignored. If you have a firearm related question, please register and post it on the forums.